The problem confronting The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), and America's private sector is how to collectively protect the nation s critical infrastructure. The challenge for the DHS is in motivating partnerships across the public, private, and DoD domains, each with different organizational and cultural objectives governed under a federalist system. The relevance of this problem lies in the vulnerability of America s economic and military foundations to terrorist attacks or a catastrophic natural disaster. Research conducted of the regulated energy and water industries indicates federal standards can be effectively established across the public-private domains. The establishment of federal tax and insurance incentives, limiting corporate liability, and developing industry standards may motivate increased security and circumvent excessive federal mandates. The conduct of partnering is scrutinized via personal interviews to determine if the recommendation to build security partnerships with federal guidance is sufficient to secure critical infrastructure. The implementation of a dual-purpose strategy is recommended to further enhance the efficiency of security partnerships. This thesis suggests the DHS must develop an innovative CIP policy and utilize the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) as the vehicle to integrate and synchronize the actions of all security partners. Critical Infrastructure, Cross Domain Partnership, Defense (Industrial Base), Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Dual Purpose Strategy, Federal Mandate, Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7, Incentives (Tax), Insurance, Interdependency, Public- Private Partnership, National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), Regionalization, Security (Partnership), Security (Standards).